Vegan lobby a challenge for UK’S dairy farmers

While the dairy industry might have escaped early criticism from the vegetarian pressure groups, the sector has been increasingly targeted by the growing vegan lobby in recent years.

And while yesterday’s Semex dairy conference in Glasgow heard that the issue needed to be addressed, it was stressed by several speakers that rather than taking on the vociferous minority pushing the vegan agenda, the industry should instead focus on delivering a positive message to the bulk of consumers who were undecided on the issue.

Dr Jude Capper, a livestock sustainability consultant – and winner of the Dairy Industry Woman of the Year award in 2017 – said that while the number of people professing to be vegans in the UK had grown by 261 per cent between 2006 and 2016 to around 542,000, this still accounted for less than 1 per cent of the population.

“However, there is not getting away from the fact that they have very loud voices and are a very vocal and keen to put their message over,” said Capper.

She said that tackling the movement head on would allow the anti-dairy campaigners to set the agenda – and leave the industry constantly on the back foot. However, addressing the huge numbers which lay between “angry vegans” and “happy farmers” – and 0 Dairy sector planning to counter vegan campaign presenting the industry’s strong health and environmental message – would put the dairy sector in the driving seat.

But she made it plain that it would be no simple task to counteract much of the graphic – and, she said, sometimes ill-founded – messages which were being put about.

“While there are some tremendous stories in support of the industry – such as the English rugby international who put his three-week recovery from a broken leg down to two pints of milk a day – it is a fact that for every negative piece of information which is put out there, five positive ones are required to counteract this,” she said.

She proposed that following on from the current “Veganuary”, which used social media to encourage people to take a month away from meat and dairy, the sector should retaliate with “Febu-dairy”.

However, the thorny question of how campaigns to promote milk and dairy products should be financed was raised by NFU Scotland vice-president Gary Mitchell.

With a show of hands showing few in favour of additional levies, Mitchell said that while the processers might be the ones currently handing over the money to Dairy UK, which is charged with promoting products and fighting the industry’s corner, this was reflected in how much producers were paid.

“And perhaps it is time for more transparency in where these funds originate,” said Mitchell.

He also indicated that more of the levies collected directly from producers which went to AHDB Dairy should also be funnelled through the promotional activities of Dairy UK.

“For there are plenty of other organisations – including the Dairy Hub – who can help us with information on practical points such as how to look after our calves,” said Mitchell. l Dairy UK chief executive Dr Judith Bryans is expected to outline how a £1.2 million promotional campaign launched last November will help to bring the “millenials” demographic on board. It is also expected that a new initiative aimed at providing dairy farmers and others in the industry with the skills, assets and tools to make their case on social media will be launched at the conference today.